Craig Daily Press / Jan Fritz: Cancer care available

Archive for Thursday, February 4, 2010

February 4, 2010, 12:00 a.m.

Updated: February 4, 2010, 2:12 p.m.

To the editor:

We are quite concerned that a Jan. 28 article in the Craig Daily Press misrepresented the availability of cancer care in the Yampa Valley.

This article quoted Beka Warren, of The Memorial Hospital, saying, “Now people won’t have to go to Grand Junction or Denver" for oncology services. There is another alternative much closer to Craig.

Since 1990, Yampa Valley Medical Center in Steamboat Springs has been offering comprehensive cancer care.

Many individuals from Craig and Moffat County come to Yampa Valley Medical Center to get treatment and to see our two oncologists, Allen Cohn, M.D., and Robert Rifkin, M.D. These cancer specialists are affiliated with Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers in Denver and are internationally recognized physicians.

Our three Infusion/Chemotherapy Center nurses are current with their biotherapy and chemotherapy cards. Additionally, two are certified in oncology nursing. Each nurse first completed 2,000 hours of delivering cancer care to patients, and then passed a national exam. They have earned the designation “OCN” for Oncology Certified Nurse, and they proudly display these initials after their names.

Our nurses have a combined 30 years of experience in providing infusion therapy and chemotherapy for patients who have cancer and other chronic illnesses.

When a medical service such as oncology is so crucial to saving and enhancing lives, its existence and long record of providing quality care should not be ignored.

YVMC is located less than an hour’s drive from Craig. We are here to serve the entire region with numerous services that are not available elsewhere in Northwest Colorado.

Jan Fritz, RN, OCN

Director of Cancer Services, Yampa Valley Medical Center

4 February 2010 at 9:07 a.m.

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justthefacts (Anonymous) says…

Fact: Many people from Moffat County go to Steamboat Springs for medical care.

Fact: Yampa Valley Medical Center offers expertise in many areas that TMH refuses to provide to it's customers.

Fact: Many Doctors and the Hospital in Steamboat have offered their services to TMH only to be rejected.

Fact: Many Doctors that come to Craig from Steamboat have been treated so poorly by TMH administration and staff that they refuse to use the amenitys availible here. ( Question:What is a $42 Million dollar new building in Craig that is not be utuilized to it's potential.?)

Fact: TMH could have had a heart clinic. Refused my management.

Fact: An onocology clinic could have been at TMH already. refused by management.

Fact: Other orthopedic Doctors have tried to work with TMH, result: same rude treatment.

Fact: Out of town OBs have tried to work with TMH.
Result: Diddo

Fact: TMH isn't really about providing quality health care, It's about making managemet look good in their fine offices in the new house. They like their new titles on the signs for the offices too.

Fact: The Hospital Board is ineffective and should be disbanded..

Fact: TMH needs to grow up and learn how to play with others. ( or they will be sent to one of their empty rooms.)

just the facts ( Sad as they may be!!!!.)